In the wake of reports today that President Obama has used the White House both to grant access to special large donors and friends like Hilary Rosen, many media figures have suggested that this isn't anything rare – it’s business as usual, and shouldn't be considered out of bounds.

But there is one major politician who would disagree: Barack Obama, circa 1996.

When Obama was running for Illinois State Senate in 1996, he gave an interview to Joe Frolik of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. In it, he called the Clinton campaign “disturbing to someone who cares about certain issues.” But he was most disturbed, he said, by the “realization that politics is a business … As oppose to a mission.”